Tips to start the year with financial peace of mind

With the arrival of 2025, many Brazilians are looking for ways to start the year with financial peace of mind, but how to make an efficient organization that is maintained throughout the year.Me Save! Marina Farias shares valuable guidelines for organizing the budget and achieving economic stability.

The first tip is to review the expenses made in the previous year to identify consumption habits and opportunities for reducing expenses. “Before thinking about the future, it is important to understand how you spent in the past. Knowing where the money is going, knowing your financial habits and having the total value of the inputs and outputs of money in day to day contribute to this greater control throughout the year. Tools such as spreadsheets and applications can help map these” patterns, he advises.

Setting clear financial goals is another essential step. Marina suggests using the SMART method, a technique that guides the creation of goals so that they can be easily visualized and, therefore, easier to achieve. “ SMART method helps to identify the goals and what it will take to achieve each of them. This word in English also serves Portuguese, means creating goals: eSpecific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Temporal, that is, with a specific deadline”, he explains.

The construction of a reserve, which some call (emergency and’, but which can also be called reserve 'quietness’, is also fundamental to deal with financial unforeseen events. Marina advises saving the equivalent of at least six months of monthly expenses, applying this amount in investments of daily liquidity. “With it is possible to be prepared to face unexpected situations, such as periods of low movement. In this way the person can have more peace of mind to make” decisions, she says.

A point of great attention in such planning is to avoid debt, and for this it is essential to control the use of credit card. Marina suggests always think of the number three. “Elect a personal limit that does not exceed three times the monthly income, divide in a maximum of three times and track spending in real time. Protect yourself by setting a personal limit. In addition, if the purchase does not fit into your budget divided into a maximum of three times then it is probably a very high value and the best is to plan right in how many times to divide to ensure that it does not weigh”, he advises.

Finally, Marina emphasizes the importance of continuing to study finance to make more informed and effective decisions. “Who stops acquiring new knowledge is stopped in time. Education is the great ferment of their financial life”, she concludes